Jury hung on 10 counts in case of former West Sac cop accused of sexual assault; reading of verdict continues Thursday

A Yolo County jury hung on 10 counts Wednesday in the case of a former West Sacramento police officer accused of sexual assault; however, the remaining 17 charges were not read until Thursday morning.

Jurors were not able to come to a decision on the following charges Sergio Alvarez, 38, faced: three counts of rape, sexual penetration, and oral copulation by threatening to use his authority as a police official, four counts of rape, sexual penetration and oral copulation by means of duress, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.

Yolo County Superior Court Judge Timothy Fall declared a mistrial on those 10 counts. Before he could read the definitive verdict on the remaining charges, Fall found an error on the verdict form for count one and ordered the jury to correct the error and continue deliberations.

After 30 minutes, Fall addressed the court, continuing the reading of the verdict to Thursday morning in Department 2.

The jury was given the case on Friday, Feb. 14. Jurors were on their eighth day of deliberation, not deliberating on Presidents' Day Monday, Feb. 17. The jury entered Department 2 at the Yolo County Courthouse one by one on Wednesday afternoon, the jury foreman with a smile on his face. The foreman read a list of 10 charges that the jury was not able to reach a decision on.

Alvarez, 38, is accused of using his position as a uniformed police officer to coerce at least five female victims to have sex with him. He pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, sexual penetration, oral copulation and sodomy.

During closing arguments, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Garrett Hamilton said that Alvarez was a "rogue" police officer who drove the West Sacramento streets in the early morning hours, targeting the "vulnerable members of our society" and using his authority to subdue them.

Hamilton went over each of the five victims, stating that "these women were selected by Alvarez for victims on the belief that they were not going to report it, and that no one would believe them if they did." The alleged victims were prostitutes and drug addicts.

J. Toney, defense counsel for Alvarez, said that this case is really about an embarrassed police force "throwing the book" at an officer. The case, according to Toney, is actually about two things: the women Alvarez admitted to having sex with, and the women that he didn't.

Alvarez admitted to having consensual sexual relationships with three of the five female victims and did not deny that a number of the sexual occurrences happened while he was on duty.

Alvarez was arrested in February 2013 and remains in custody with bail set at $26.3 million.